I had visualized a 26/11 anniversary befitting the solemnity of the occasion with all parties' leaders led by Manmohan Singh and Ratan Tata at Gateway of India paying homage to the innocent victims, saluting the security personnel and resolving in unison to never let such an incident happen again. After all, the nation is greater than party politics and ideological differences.

But 24 hours before the deadly date I feel defeated as an Indian, by my own fellow men, who were supposed to lead us to a more secure future, while seeing a blank and a shallow 26/11 anniversary. A billion nice people, condemned to have ugly leaders with an eye on personal aggrandizement and glory deserved better.

See what are the two most important stories hogging the space on our channels and newspapers on the eve of 26/11. One is about Shilpa’s marriage reception and the other is a reception hosted by Obama in Washington for our PM.

If the opposition is confusedly mired in the dud dirty linen of another Manmohan, who gave a report that could have well have been released at the AICC headquarters , the ruling clique is eyeing the next elections and the enthronement of its prince charming hence the preparations for repeating the Hindu-Muslim division game have begun in right earnest.

The only hope lies in the people's power and passionate regards for their dead and honest. While we may have a few words of empathy and assurances delivered by a failed CEO of the country who thought it wise to spend the anniversary of an attack on India in Washington, rather than spending a quiet day with those who suffered and comfort the nation with his presence, the people are emotionally observing the day with an angst in their heart and homage to the dead who fell on this day last year to the bullets of the most cowardly savages.

Nobody can forget that while the security personnel were fighting a battle with less professional weapons and instruments, the leaders were making a tamasha of the incident. Hence the shame brought to them by a media and people's all-pervasive anguish had the home minister and the chief minister’s head rolling with the state home minister too following suit.

The year post-26/11 saw Maoist killings on an extraordinary rise.Unparalleled Chinese incursions.LeT overactivated with a Pakistan refusing to listen to us or even accept our evidences.India losing moral ground as a biggest target of terror on this planet and forced to talk economy with the US in times of facing multifaceted terror wars without any conceivable joint action plan with so-called avowed friends to eliminate murder machines.

And we continued with Rahul’s roadshows, dalit hut stopovers, Koda fumblings, Vande Mataram opposed in presence of the home minister, 'Mee Marathi' chauvinism, a traitor in the valley invited Chinese intervention, Liberhan’s 17 years of no-consequence deadwood, a fratricidal opposition and churning of shallow political gossip which they call journalism.

That was the year we saw after India was shaken up by 10 mad lads. And we say we shall try to convince Obama to eliminate terror for us. Ha!

The much-touted Force One’s first demo fizzling out as a laughing stock and a year later, the same party is in governance, not because people thought it’s a better option but because the opposition failed to prove its credentials. The same state home minister is again installed. Not a single guilty man has been punished. Taj decided to have its own security arrangement rather than depend on the khaki that remains a victim of lack of professional preparedness due to lethargic political support to provide latest equipments. The martyrs, who were promised a lot last year by the paan-chewing politicos, have yet to receive the help, and the wives of Karkare and Saluskar had to travel to Delhi to meet Sonia, a year later. Not that the state governors could go to their houses, offer apologies and have the formalities for help completed at the convenience of the families of the martyred .

No, it couldn’t be done. Neither the better, lightweight bulletproof jackets nor the better firepowered machines have been procured. Kasab is on the front pages daily like a masala providing Page 3 material. Policeman gave their lives so that a Kasab is caught alive but their colleagues find themselves in a no better environment to work.

The will to fight and defeat the enemy is dead. It’s the biggest casualty in this system. Washington’s convenience of dates to host a dinner for Manmohan Singh was more important than to observe the first anniversary of 26/11 at home and resolve decisively to annihilate the terror outfits through a non-partisan collective effort.

There is no security alert that could be trusted to thwart a repeat of 26/11. If in the last 12 months, there has been no attack; it’s not because the home minister had made the security arrangements foolproof, but perhaps the attackers have not yet decided.

While there is an all-round systemic failure, the tide of change is too dim and challenged. The king’s failings must make masses to take up the challenge to rejuvenate the public life and throw out the fossils, paving the way for a secured land and a responsive regime.

Just work to bring that moment with a candle for the 26/11 martyrs. That’s the only way to sincerely observe the first anniversary of the black day and to have it as the last incident too.

India's surprisingly unknown ,or less known water-fall, as graceful and magnificent as NiagraThis breath taking natural picturesque splendor located at a road distance of65 Kms from Trichur (Kerala) & 60 Kms from Cochin International airport.Try to chalk out a holiday in September just after the monsoons.

The above mentioned matter was listed before the Supreme Court on 27.11.09. After hearing arguments from the Petitioners, Supreme Court bench of Justice Altamas Kabir and Cyriac Joseph issued notice on the Union of India, State of J & K & CBI. 4 weeks time has been given to the respondents to file response. Earlier on 13.11.2009 when the petition was mentioned, Supreme Court had granted Police protection to deceased Rajnish’s relatives.

In the present case, there is violation of Human Rights by the State Police and the State authorities of Jammu and Kashmir. The postmortem report shows sustained third degree torture including wounds, fractures and burns. The police in conspiracy with Anchal’s relatives brutally tortured and inflicted third degree injuries and then killed her husband, Rajneesh Sharma, in cold blooded manner in Police custody. His crime was that being a Hindu from Jammu, he married a Muslim girl, i.e Anchal nee Amina Yousuf of Srinagar against the wishes of her family. Rajneesh paid the price for marrying a Muslim girl. Although both were major at the time of marriage and solemnized willingly. The writ petitioners have prayed for independent and impartial investigation by CBI, registration of FIR against the police officials and Aanchal’s family members involved in this brutal murder, petitioner compensation of Rs. 50 lakhs and guidelines to be laid down for the police in such cases.

Monday, November 16, 2009

The night before President Obama's first Asian tour began, he was trying to comfort an America deeply in shock after Maj Nidal Malik Hasan killed 13 American soldiers who were bound for Afghanistan. Yet, Obama's nine-day tour, which took him to Tokyo, Singapore, Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul, was marked more by economics than a consolidation of the Asian powers against terrorism. That's how he is trying to assure Americans — bringing back buoyancy to the US markets, reducing unemployment and making Asians buy more American goods rather overfilling American bazaars with Asian goods.

Hence, more than any other country China became the most significant stopover, and longest too — three nights and three days beginning Sunday evening, November 15. To make the Chinese receptive he refused a meeting with the Dalai Lama in Washington, and remained noncommittal whether he would raise issues of Tibet and human rights violations with his Chinese counterpart. Though an overcautious China provided all the reasons to Obama for a Tibet remark when its foreign ministry spokesperson raised the issue via Abraham Lincoln , referring to Obama — he is black, he admires Abraham Lincoln, so he, of all people, should sympathize with Beijing's effort to prevent Tibet from seceding and sliding back into what it was before its liberation by Chinese troops: a feudalistic, slaveholding society headed by the Dalai Lama.

But Obama may not necessarily oblige Dalai supporters as he wants to project a different image of America — a suave , conciliatory nation that can be talked to. His message to China from Tokyo was warm and friendly, wanting to build strong ties and not taking the rise of China as a threat. And he introduced himself as a pacific president with such personal history that the audience in the Suntory hall of Tokyo gave him a standing ovation. He said: “I am an American president who was born in Hawaii and lived in Indonesia as a boy. My sister Maya was born in Jakarta and later married a Chinese-Canadian. My mother spent nearly a decade working in the villages of Southeast Asia, helping women buy a sewing machine or an education that might give them a foothold in the world economy.” “So,” he added, “the Pacific rim has helped shape my view of the world.”

America needs a supportive Chinese market and wants China to move towards a market-based value for its currency. So Obama's meeting with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao would concentrate more on economic issues and yes, AfPak policy, which affects the regional power balance but won't touch any controversial issues. As New York Times put it, he is clearly seeking to avoid alienating Beijing on the eve of his inaugural visit to China.

That's a big morale booster to China specially it is engaged in a wordy duel with India on border issues that reached a ‘cold war' level during the Dalai lama's Arunachal visit. Hence a natural corollary to Obama's China visit would be how it will affect India-China ties. Observers say the recent Chinese ‘war of words' with India and Chinese government-run media's xenophobic reactions and commentaries against Indian positions — reminding us not to forget 1962, can also be attributed to the growing India-US closeness symbolized in the Bush era's nuke deal. That has made China feel threatened by an India-US alignment. Hence the pressure on India has been building up. Another factor is the increasing US influence in Asia, which China has never liked. China thinks that India, which had kept a genuine non-aligned relationship with Washington has now completely gone into the US camp after the nuke deal. Indira Gandhi's regime and Vajpayee's strong nationalist stand post-Pokaran 2 showed India independent.

No more now, is the Chinese perception. This has put India under a bigger strategic burden and complexity. We are not sure if the US will help us during a skirmish with our northern neighbour, as US-China ties would be more important to Washington than help to Delhi. Obama's Asian tour doesn't seem to have taken India as an Asian power, and Obama would meet Indian Prime Minister and the President at Washington, and not in Delhi. Just before Obama left for China, the US administration refused to allow Indian intelligence officers to interrogate American national David Coleman Headley, arrested by the FBI on charges of plotting a major terror attack in India at the behest of Pakistan-based LeT, though India had given the FBI permission to interrogate Kasab in Mumbai. The US will also put pressure on Indian leaders to sign the CTBT and accept the US position on carbon emissions. It has also not changed its ‘black list' that bans trade in sensitive technology for some Indian companies, including a dozen key government entities like the Indian Space Research Organization. Though the US continues such trade with countries like North Korea, Pakistan and China that have a record of proliferation.

So a warmer confidence-building between the US and China may not necessarily mean an easing of the pressures on India. We will have to fight our battle on our shoulders alone.

That apart, a better US-China relationship would certainly be a development having its soothing effect on the region, as South Asia has increasingly seen geopolitical tensions rising on account of a bitter US-China rivalry and their efforts to curb each other's influence. Pakistan, which receives charitable grants and military help from, amazingly, both the rival countries, is in a state of a multi-control towers with non-state players as much powerful as the state authority dependent on US doles. A closer US-China relationship is not seen changing the status quo. China is a hard bargainer and long back it began building up its case against what it terms ‘unfair' policies of the US. Its state-controlled newspapers published public opinion polls showing public anger against Washington on economic matters. One of them said: “The unprecedented and increased trade protectionism measures the US has launched against China recently have triggered a strong fury of protest among the Chinese public. A recent survey conducted by huanqiu.com shows that more than 90 percent of web users believe the US is seriously ruining the principle of freedom of international trade.”

Ultimately it's the Chinese strength and military power coupled with its strong economy that has seen world leaders recognize its might and seek its cooperation rather than get into conflict with it. Obama's visit also underlines the same truth of diplomacy. As one American analyst succinctly tried to put the matrix of the US China relations, ‘the most important division will be between centers of order and centers or sources of disorder, it is vital to American interests that China remain a center of order. America needs to handle a rising China the way Britain handled a rising America, not a rising Germany.'

Sunday, November 15, 2009

A week ago i received an offer that was difficult to refuse. I was invited to speak to a distinguished audience at Taj Mumbai, which was partly destroyed during the 26/11 terrorist attacks. Nearly a year later, the hotel stands restored. In a way, it may be seen to represent the spirit of Hindu resurrection.

Its rise, literally from the ashes, could be seen in the context of the ancient Somnath temple, which was repeatedly destroyed by invaders and rebuilt each time. The audience was the great surprise of the evening. It was well-heeled and very keen to find out about the global Hindu footprint in the contemporary world. That’s the ‘new Hindu’ — modern, rich, powerful and a staunch believer in pluralism and diversity.

This ‘new Hindu’ is everywhere today. Lakshmi Mittal, one of the world’s richest people, now lives in London. Molecular biologist Venkat Ramakrishnan, who shared this year’s Nobel prize for chemistry with his colleagues, is based in the US. Pranav Mistry, who works at MIT’s tech lab, is the founder of the futuristic techno invention SixthSense which may change the way we live. Indra Nooyi, PepsiCo chief and ranked by Forbes magazine as one of the world’s 100 most powerful women lives in the US. The list is endless. All of them are players at the global level; they make waves in their respective fields and force the world to sit up and take notice. They are a force to reckon with; they are difficult to ignore.

Till a few centuries ago, the Hindus were confronted by marauding Muslim invaders and proselytizing Christian missionaries. But they showed extraordinary resilience. Their rise to great heights is this millennium’s incredible saga of resurrection.

These ‘new Hindus’ are taking the religion to new lands, which would have been unthinkable just a little while ago. This is why Shanghai celebrated its first Diwali with businessman Vijay Chaudhry from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan. Swaminarayan temples world wide are turning into Hindu awareness centres including the one at Muscat. Sri Sri Ravishankar was asked to spread the message of peace in war-torn Iraq.

Some little time ago, Time magazine’s cover story was on the healing powers of yoga and chanting of ‘Om’. This is the first year that Diwali was celebrated in that seat of world power, the White House. The Gayatri mantra can now be heard in Rome, New York and Beijing. All this thanks to the liberal and successful Hindu, who will never bomb his adopted country, but instead makes it home by importing a bit of his native land. In Paramaribo, Suriname’s capital, the local river became the Ganga for Indians settled there; in Mauritius’ Port Louis, a water body was named Ganga Talab; in Bangladesh, Hindus have strengthened a movement to rebuild a Kali temple destroyed in 1971.

The point to note is that today’s Hindu is different from before. He is more empowered, open to new ideas and adventures. His political affiliations may vary but he believes that India needs a revival with an unmistakable Hindu stamp. Spiritual gurus such as Sri Sri Ravishankar and Mata Amritanandamayee are among some of India’s most globally admired Hindus. Unlike the fossils of Deoband and Raj Thackeray, they strive for the greater common good, which empowers India to be strong as well as punish the wicked.

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has become India’s largest non-governmental effort in hospitals, blood banks, eye donation, schools and the barefoot doctors’ movement. This, at a time that it is threatened by a class of attacker known as ‘the secular’.

Hinduism is the world’s only living religion to be known for its compassion and wisdom, rather than its massacres. The challenge is to build a grand future that does not knock the sentiments and beliefs of the majority, which has been trying to rise after centuries ofbrutalization.

Thursday, November 12, 2009

Mr. Tarun Vijay, a former editor of Panchjanya, the official publication of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which is an old Hindu nationalist organisation, made a telling distinction between India and some of its neighbours at the last meeting of the Club.Significantly, the meeting was held at the poolside of the Taj Mahal Hotel where the worst carnage by terrorists in India’s recent history was initiated just a year ago, on November 26, 2008.Mr. Tarun Vijay said that over the last few centuries Indian scholars, saints and seers went to several countries in Asia carrying the message of love and compassion and of a caring and affectionate God. In return, those countries feted their guests, honoured them and adopted Sanskrit names for themselves and for their landmarks.Not only were they proud of their heritage, they were often surprised by the modern-day Indians’ lack of knowledge about their glorious culture and heritage.It was this respect for ancestry that had led to the new international airport in Bangkok (the biggest and most sophisticated in the world) being named Suvarnabhumi, a chaste Sanskrit term. In fact, the first visual to strike one on entering the premises was that of a 150-foot-long mural of sagar-manthan, or the mythical churning of the oceans.Similarly, the present King of Thailand was known as Rama Navam (or Rama the Ninth). A brief chat with the Rajguru, the King’s teacher, revealed that the country followed the legacy of King Rama and that all kings were known after him.The full name of the present King of Thailand was Bhumidol Adulyadej, also a Sanskrit name, and it was he who had christened Bangkok airport as Suvarnabhumi, showing that the Thais were proud of their heritage.

‘People in East Asia are often surprised that Indians are largely ignorant of their culture and heritage’

In complete contrast, said Mr. Tarun Vijay, the barbarians who attacked the city on 26/11 came armed with sophisticated weapons and other armaments to kill people – never mind that they did not know any one of the people whom they had come to kill, or the fact that among them were women, children and the aged, all of them unarmed and harmless, leading normal lives in their own country.Mr. Tarun Vijay, who gave a talk on “Global mission of India”, was introduced by Tarjani Vakil who said that he was the Director of the Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Research Foundation, a centre for civilizational values and policy research and an ideological think-tank based on the nationalist school of thought at the headquarters of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi.A prolific writer both in English and Hindi, he had written over 2,000 articles and was a regular columnist for The Times of India, Dainik Jagran, Maharashtra Times and so on. He had launched a peace initiative between India and Pakistan along with the Daily Jung, a major newspaper in Pakistan. That initiative had been appreciated on both sides of the border.And, as Nanik Rupani revealed later, it was Mr. Tarun Vijay who had put the ancient town of Ladakh on the tourist map by organising the “Sindhu Darshan” programme that had gone on to become a popular event. That one initiative had changed the entire economy of Ladakh.Mr. Tarun Vijay started his talk by pointing out that it was a rishi from India who went to Cambodia 1,200 years ago, married a local and settled down there who gave the country a name, “Kamboj” (whence Cambodia), which later became a part of the Srivijaya Empire.The biggest temple of Hindus was not in India but in Angkor Vat in Cambodia. Even after the advent of communism, Communist Cambodia remembered its Hindu and Indian heritage with respect and honour.A UNESCO publication on that country showed how Indians who left the shores of their land established their global footprint on the basis of love, friendship and scholarship.After referring to the naming of Bangkok airport as Suvarnabhumi by Thailand’s King Bhumidol Adulyadej, he said, “That is the footprint of your ancestors, a legacy of your forefathers who spread out and impressed the people with the power and the strength of knowledge and character, the two major aspects of the Indian footprint… That is the global vision of India, the global message of India even today”.Mr. Tarun Vijay said that the third chief of the RSS, the late Prof. Rajendra Singh, who was the Head of the Department of Physics at Allahabad University, had said to him in the course of his last interview that he did not want to see India as a brutal military power or as a dehumanised, prosperous country. On the contrary, he wanted India to be known for its knowledge and character.Speaking about his experiences in China where he is a Fellow of the Sichuan University, he said when he went to see the Leshan Buddha in Chengdu, he came across the largest Buddha sculpture in the world. It was about 250 feet tall and had been made from one solid rock – an entire mountain had been sculpted into a sitting Buddha.And the very first statue visible on entering the campus was that of Samantabhadra, another Sanskrit name. When he asked about Samantabhadra, his interlocutors said it was surprising that he did not know about him.The official accompanying him (in a China ruled by the Communist Party) then told him that Samantabhadra was a rishi from North India who crossed snow deserts and the Himalayas and survived to live in Chengdu some 950 years ago. He learned the Chinese language and started communicating with the King and the people.Such was the influence of his brilliance, intellect and scholarship that everyone started believing in Buddha and he was able to inspire the people of Chengdu to build the Leshan Buddha sculpture.“Even in the year 2009, it is the biggest Buddha sculpture in the world. And it was done by your ancestors, by those Indians who were brave and courageous and who never wanted to subjugate or colonise other people.“They took dharma with them. They were not ashamed of their civilization, they were not ashamed of their past, of their glorious heroes and of the great men and women who loved their language; they translated the entire literature of China and East Asia into Sanskrit and from Sanskrit into their language.”Mr. Tarun Vijay said the Rajguru of China was Kumarajiva whose father was from Sinkiang and mother from Kashmir. When he went there, the Han King of Beijing gave him the title, “Teacher of China”.It was Kumarajiva who started the finest method of translating the classics from Sanskrit to Chinese and from Chinese to Sanskrit with a 17-tier arrangement. It started with literal translation, followed by the first step of checking; next, ensuring that the main spirit of the text was conveyed, and so on. It was only after 17 steps that the final text of the original text from Sanskrit into Chinese and from Chinese into Sanskrit was available.Recently, when visiting the Indian Embassy in Beijing, he met a man called Vijay Choudhary, a small trader from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan. This man revealed that he employed 1,000 Chinese in his diamond-cutting factory in Kunming!That was the distance that India had travelled – from Samantabhadra to Vijay Choudhary – and neither of them had used a gun to befriend the Chinese. Rather, they had won them over with the help of mutual respect and understanding.The Chinese cared for Vijay Choudhary because he was bringing a lot of money into China and giving employment to the rural people there.This case, too, represented the spirit of India whose teachers, professors, technologists and engineers were respected icons of knowledge, scholarship, integrity and character.And there was also the story narrated by Mr. L.K. Advani of a Malaysian whom he had met in Kuala Lumpur. The man lived in New York where he had his office and establishment. But what was he doing in Kuala Lumpur?He told Mr. Advani that he had to undergo a heart surgery. When he learnt that an Indian doctor in Kuala Lumpur was the best in the field, he had travelled from the USA to be operated by that Indian doctor in Malaysia.“We don’t bomb the country that we adopt. That’s what everyone says about Indians. Everyone loves and accepts Indians. Even if an Indian is a British, German or American passport-holder, they trust him 100% – that he won’t bomb their land. He will work for the country, fight for the country and will never ditch it.“That is your achievement, the blessings of your ancestors; and that’s the Indian footprint all over the world, that of character, honesty, integrity.”Turning to Nanik Rupani, Mr. Tarun Vijay said it was worth pondering over that several leaders from all over the world happily came to India to accept awards presented by his Priyadarshini Academy. This was no mean achievement and an endorsement of brand India.The speaker next referred to the aftermath of the “discovery” of America by Columbus who had actually set out in search of India. He could not find India but reached the land that was now called America.“What happened after Columbus reached America? More than four crores of the original inhabitants of the land, who were known as American Indians, were brutalised, massacred. It was a holocaust. And the originator of that holocaust was Columbus.”He had wanted to proselytise, to find gold, to grab land, to get slaves, to subjugate the people; to take over their land and to build his own buildings.In comparison, the Taj Mahal Hotel was a symbol of the indomitable, invincible Indian spirit represented by the tricolour. For it was here that the mission of the barbarians who had attacked Bombay on 26/11 was defeated.

Would we respect Rama or celebrate Diwali had he played peacenik and allowed his wife to be taken away? asks Tarun Vijay

“Ask yourself, what kind of people must they have been (those who attacked Bombay on 26/11). Compare your civilization and the work done by your ancestors in the earlier years which gave you the Hindu civilization, the Indus civilization, which left imprints all over the globe, from Japan to Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Korea, Brazil, New Zealand. (You will find) respect and understanding for a different viewpoint.“You will find a solid belief in pluralism, in democracy and diversity. We are not those who want everything to be uniformly same, who want all people speaking one language, reading one book, wearing the same attire. No, we love diversity.“Let a million flowers with a million fragrances bloom; if there can be any such place in the world, then that is Hindustan. No other country can boast of this kind of legacy which is so supportive of pluralism, respecting different viewpoints. We never had a Galileo hanged for his beliefs.”Taking a dig at the growing tribe of peaceniks, Mr. Tarun Vijay said Rama did not compromise with Ravana, telling him that he could take Janaki to Colombo. And he, as a pace-loving person, would return to Ayodhya where the people would be so happy that he had played peacenik and left his wife behind, that they would welcome him and celebrate his return as Diwali.On the contrary, Rama cautioned Ravana and when the latter remained adamant, he vanquished Ravana. That was the legacy of India, that of not compromising with the wicked.Narrating another experience, Mr. Tarun Vijay said that the renowned businessman and philanthropist, Mr. Bob Harilela, had told him that he never cared about India when he was a little boy. In fact, he hated the heat and the poverty that he saw when he came here at the age of 13.But his mother told him that whatever he did and wherever he went, he would not be able to erase the fact that he was an Indian – it was “written” on his face. In course of time Mr. Harilela bought an apartment in Bombay and now his largest spend on charity was in India. He spent his vacations in India and had taught his children to respect their heritage.The children would always remain Indian, but “not on the basis of a gun, or of gun powder” or colonisation.“No one will remember a Gen. Dyer in India with respect, or even Queen Elizabeth. But Bhagat Singh, who was only 23 years old when he went to the gallows? Yes… This land has always respected those who have stood with their heritage, with their civilization, and those who have stood up at times of crisis to fight the enemy, to fight the barbarians so that peace, pluralism and democracy can be saved.”On a visit to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia, he saw that not a single shop in the markets had a portrait of Osama bin Laden because violence, extremism and uncivilized behaviour never won respect. History only remembered those who spread the message of love and compassion and it was such people who were respected down the ages.Buddha was “still alive” in spite of the fact that his sculpture in Bamiyan had been bombed out by the Taliban.“The global vision of India cannot be anything but to spread the message that the gun never achieves success or does any good for the people. It is the power of love, compassion and character that does so. And that’s what I have learned in my organisation, in the RSS.”

(A loose translation: The names on your lips are those of Iraq, Egypt, Rome and China, but you don’t seem to be acquainted with the name of your own country; the first thing you need to do is to become a man for Hindustan, and once you rouse Hindustan, then become a man for the whole world.)Answering questions, Mr. Tarun Vijay told Trilochan Sahney that he did not agree that India was always populated by invaders. In fact, even the theory of “the Aryan invasion of India” had been proved false, what with American scientists finding that the genes of the Aryans and the Dravids living in India since ancient times had a lot in common.On the contrary, India had always given shelter to those refused shelter elsewhere and to every persecuted community in the world. No other country could boast of such a record.But he agreed that Hindu society was fractured by the caste system. In this context the speaker quoted Swami Vivekananda who had said that the only ideal before Hindu society was the ideal of Guru Govind Singh.Sitaram Shah pointed out that the word Hindu did not appear in any literature. Where had the word come from? Secondly, all that the speaker had said in praise of Hinduism was being maligned by the very people who were talking of Hinduism.Mr. Tarun Vijay said that the word Hindu came from the Greeks. At that time Indians were called “Aryas”, “Vedics”, or “Sindhuputras”. But since the Greeks had difficulty pronouncing certain consonants, it so happened that Sindhus came to be called Hindus.However, changing the name of a city or a land could not change the basic character of the people who inhabited that place.“And the basic character of this land, beyond the Indus, is that they love nature, they don’t condemn it. When Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman to reach the summit of Mount Everest, she did not set foot on it till she had placed vermillion and rice on it as a ritual offering, thanking the goddess mother for giving her the strength to reach the summit.“On the other hand, Western mountaineers write that they ‘conquered’ Mount Everest; the word ‘conquered nature’ does not appear in the Indian language. This is the basic difference in the worldview of our people. We have respect for parents, for family values, for pluralism. That makes us different people. You may call them Hindus, Indians, Bharatiyas, whatever, it means the same thing,” Mr. Tarun Vijay added.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Tarun Vijay on what the Maharashtra Navnirman Samiti's show of power in the state assembly on Monday means for India.

If anybody wants to know why a handful of Britishers could rule us for so many years, they must study Raj Thackeray's ascendancy.

He is just not an enemy to the grand Maratha culture, but an anti-pan Indian vision who has given credibility to a politics promoted by hate and communal strife.

Samajwadi Party leader Abu Azmi must thank Raj profusely for enabling him to enjoy the support of the state's gullible Hindi-speaking people who think here is a man in Maharashtra who stood for their language.

What an irony, and what a joke!

Those MLAs who roughed up Azmi in the Maharashtra assembly on Monday and have been suspended from the legislature for four years have shown no remorse. On the contrary, the MNS has conveyed that it will be more aggressive in the future. I am sure these suspended MLAs will be accorded a hero's welcome in many pockets of Maharashtra where they will wear the halo of martyrs.

All four MNS legislators won from erstwhile Shiv Sena strongholds. It shows that the emphasis on raising the volume and playing the 'victim' card riding on sectarian issues helps small regional parties in an atmosphere where the major players are unable to attract people's support on larger issues.

When one national player, the Congress party, began helping Raj to take on its arch rivals in Maharashtra, the Shiv Sena and Bharatiya Janata Party it was playing a dangerous game like it did in the late 1970s and mid-1980s when it promoted Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale and placated Muslim extremists respectively.

Such steps may help momentarily, but in the long run they prove acidic for the nation's social fabric and damage the party playing with such fire.

I firmly believe that those who make a living in Maharashtra -- or for that matter in any other state and have their home there -- must not feel hesitant to learn, speak and be proud of Marathi or the local language. It will be an act of arrogance to say that one Indian language is superior to the other.

We accepted English quite meekly, that was pushed down our throats by British colonisers with an unmistakable contempt for Indian languages. Read Macaulay's infamous statement about it.

But we refuse to learn Marathi, the language that Shivaji used in Maharashtra, or Tamil in Tamil Nadu. Is that a sign of patriotism?

My take is we must try to learn as many Indian languages as possible. So why not learn Marathi even if we don't belong to Maharashtra and don't earn a living there? But it has to be through love, calm and educative persuasion, showing equal respect for the others's language preferences. Guns brings more guns in opposition and hate begets hate.

Every Indian language is a great one. Like our cousins, it is one of us. Why should we have to complain about its forced usage or suffocate having someone pushing it down our throats?

I think the best that an Amitabh Bachchan or a Shah Rukh Khan could do is to pronounce from their roof tops that 'Me Marathi Ahes (I am a a Marathi)'.

Being a Marathi doesn't conflict with being a good Indian. But not at gun point surely.

I have worked in Maharashtra, learnt Marathi and love to speak as much as I can to my Marathi friends. My 'Me Marathi' sentiment is borne out of my respect and affection for this great language and culture and not because someone is breathing down my neck to say so.

Where Raj fails India is the point of expressing his respect and devotion to Mother India's Language Parivar.

He is putting the idea of pan nationalism and a vision that encompasses the entire length and breadth of the country under one entity, Mother India, in conflict with local identities, helping fissiparous tendencies from Bihar to the north-east, from Punjab to down south.

This tendency has a fatal attraction for many and at a time when localisation of political issues seems to bring immediate rewards, small time politicians in every state will find it irresistible to begin an 'oust the outsider' movement.

Where will the space for an Indian be then? And where will the Marathi people find a comfortable place in Patna, Bhopal or Delhi? Shouldn't any place and corner of India be as inviting, hospitable and comforting to any Indian belonging to any state?

The idea of India is based on the unhindered flowering of diversity and safeguarding the vibgyor of a million flowers with as many fragrances. Else, what will the difference be between a China, a Saudi Arabia and us?

Way back in the early 1950s, the language issue had engulfed Punjab resulting in serious conflicts between votaries of Punjabi and Hindi. The latter were led by the Arya Samaj advocating Hindi as Punjab's official language. Shri Guruji Golwalkar, the then sarsanghchalak of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, was touring Punjab and saw the state being divided on the lines of language.

He issued a scintillating statement that must be an eye-opener for non-Marathi speaking Maharashtrians today. In Punjab he said all residents must register Punjabi as their mother tongue. It immediately helped to sooth inflamed emotions.

At a time when the nation confronts threats from belligerent neighbours and our economic development is at stake, raising language issues and making one Indian less empowered than the other on the basis of Talibani parochialism is a fragmented polity that must be nipped in the bud.

Monday, November 9, 2009

I thought being an Indian is enough till I saw people being killed and ousted for not being Maharashtrian and contributing 'appropriately' for the cause of Maratha culture.

But how do I convert to their version of a good citizenship so that my existence in Mumbai and Nashik is not under threat?

First it's difficult to explain to which state I really belong. My father hailed from Punjab and my mother came from Rajasthan. They settled down in a city, which was, then under UP, but has now become the capital of a newly created hill state.

I was born and brought up there, so by birth I can be a UPwallah Bhaiya though now I shall be called a Garhwali. My brother married a UP girl; my sister was married in a Haryana village. One niece married a Tam-Bram -- I hope you understand Tamil Brahmin. The other married a Telugu boy and my nephew fell in love with a Bengali girl.

That's my family. I worked as a tribal activist in Maharashtra and Gujarat and learnt Marathi with my friends, all of whom were pucca Maharashtrians.

I loved Marathi food, read and spoke Marathi and being in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh almost all of us colleagues had a great reverence for Maharashtra. RSS founder Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar was a Maharashtrian. So was Dr Bhim Rao Ambedkar. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was a Maharashtrian and, of course, the great Shivaji, who elevated the sense of being an Indian like our other heroes such as Guru Govind Singh and Raja Raja Chola.

I never felt that being a Maratha was an overwhelming identity for a warrior like Shivaji till I saw a huge billboard of Shivaji's picture in Nagpur on the way to the airport.

It said -- salutations to the 'Great Kurmi Mahapurush of Maharashtra'. I saw it twice to ensure that the eulogy was written for the hero whom I thought was a great Indian icon. Yes, Shivaji was Kurmi and the Kurmi Mahasangh was celebrating their caste hero. I was perplexed, if Shivaji is a Kurmi hero, how could I feel proud of him because I am not a Kurmi?

In fact long back I had removed the caste tag from my name under the influence of some old pracharaks of the Sangh, who held an archaic belief that caste identities are of no significance in our society and we must assert our identity as Hindus only.

I think they were wrong because after having spent so many decades in Delhi I have found that caste is the only identity that matters in today's vibrant, dynamic and futuristic India.

I married a girl who hails from Garhwal, a Bisht, and it was certainly an inter-caste marriage with everyone's consent. Till then we had held the belief that being an Indian is enough, that caste and provincial marks belong to a bygone era. To be modern and forward looking means to show your acumen and win a place of honour through merit.

Enough?

Not exactly. You have to prove that you have done enough for upholding the cause of the state where you are trying your luck. Most states have this provision. The law of Bhumiputra -- or the son of the soil principle -- is applied everywhere. Beginning from Jammu and Kashmir where no Indian can buy land or get admission in a professional college unless s/he has a state residentship certificate. Thanks to the constitutional provision of Article 370, J&K is bestowed another special privilege, a separate red flag with a plough. It is hoisted along side the national tricolour.

If any woman of the state marries an Indian who is not a citizen of J&K, she loses her state subject status and their children lose the right to admission in any state run/ aided college. It's a punishment for being an Indian rather than being just a Kashmiri.

Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee was a Bengali, he was also the youngest-ever vice-chancellor of Calcutta University. But he chose to agitate for removing the ominous provisions of two flags, two constitutions and two heads of state for Kashmir. He died mysteriously in Sheikh Abdullah's jail in Srinagar and not even a magisterial enquiry was conducted.

And with that ended the unification efforts.

If you try to enter a northeastern state like Nagaland or Arunachal Pradesh, you will be required to obtain an Inner line Permit, started by the British to strengthen the isolation of NEFA (North Eastern Frontier Agency) areas. We continue with that and one has to state before a prescribed authority for how many days one is visiting the state, the purpose, where will he stay. Then there has to be a guarantor who is required to sign that within the stipulated period the person applying for permission to enter the state will go back.

This much for the national integration through government routes. But nothing of this applies to Bangladeshi infiltrators or jihadis. They are welcomed and given ration cards and enlisted as Indian citizens. The last time when I was in Nagaland, the then home minister said the state had approximately 75,000 illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators, who had entered the state without inner line permits obviously.

Being an infiltrator doesn't bother anyone, but North Indians in Mumbai, mostly Hindus, have to be targeted for vote bank politics.

In India, to be an Indian alone is a deficiency factor. You have to be a Jat, Gujjar, SC or ST or Yadav, or Muslim to live with political support and get state protection and aid.

The less your Indian-ness is pronounced, and more micro-identities are projected the chances to move forward and benefit brighten up.

So like the Haj subsidy, Andhra's Christian chief minister has announced subsidies for Christians going to Israel for pilgrimage. He hasn't uttered a word about Kailas Manasarovar pilgrims who go to Tibet for pilgrimage.

Definitely in politics a pan Indian outlook and belonging to a majority is a Ghate ka sauda -- a matter of loss.

Therefore, I find that to live a secured and politically correct life in India, it is better to have a provincial identity than just be an Indian.

Kindly get me a proselytiser who can certifiably convert me to be a Maratha or a Maharashtrian. At least I will belong to someone who would consider me his own. My broader Rashtra is lost in a shrunk Maharashtra.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

When the nation is facing grave threats from the Maoists and the Lashkar-e-Taiba's Islamist mad-heads, and discussing how to counter the Chinese arrogance, suddenly mullahs living in a frozen Arabian time zone have cried that they won't sing "Vande Mataram".

Are they concerned about the people? People whose lives they think they govern through some fatwas and scriptural instructions? Do they realize that hardly any educated Muslim with his head firmly positioned where it should be, listens to them leave aside "obeying" their dictates? Still they make some noises to get media attention and register their political presence.

What was the compulsive necessity for making such an announcement while the home minister was there to have a plateful of appeasement biryani in hope of garnering their votes for a 21st-century government?

One explanation that has come to us through Deoband observers is frighteningly pregnant with serious consequences to our already strained social fabric. The Congress wants to create another monster out of Muslim fanatics to further erode Mayawati's vote bank and simultaneously distract public attention from its failure on the Maoist front and keep the public debate away from the price rise. These are the issues it couldn't handle; hence, the distraction was immediately needed. And the way fanatics helped the British before India was vivisected, the maulvis have obliged the party in power. It's advisable not to get trapped in this political lunacy, but then the media will be taking it up in a big way for certain unexplained reasons and there will be obvious reactions and diatribes from both sides to keep the issue alive.

Public memory shouldn't be too thin. Remember how Bhindranwale was created, the statements about his "saintliness", the permission to his brigands to roam free through Delhi's roads brandishing AK-47s on top of buses. And then only too recently, Raj Thackeray was propped up to counter Shiv Sena-BJP's growth in the Maratha land.

They forget that a Bhindranwale and a Raj results in self-defeat, a defeat for the national unity and collective goals of economic prosperity. The Deoband mullahs have never helped their community in making economic, social and educational progress. At any moment of a social crisis among Muslims, they have delayed any decision or taken a retrograde stand. The "shining" examples of their fossilized mentality were too visible during the Shah Bano case, Gudiya's tragic story and equal right to Muslim women. They kept a studied silence when five lakh Hindus were driven out of their homes in the Kashmir valley, after announcements were blared out on the dreadful night of January 11,1989, asking Pandits to get out and leave behind their women. Jammu & Kashmir is the only Muslim-majority state in India and if Deoband is "concerned" about Islam's peaceful, and humanitarian face, why should it not try to influence the terror groups operating in the name of their religion and in turn, as the maulvis say, bringing bad name to their great message of universal brotherhood?

But never will one find them engaging the "bad elements" and issuing a fatwa against their "anti-Islamic" action. All they would do is to irritate Hindus and punch the patriotic people belonging to all denominations with untimely and out of context pronouncements like the one they made while the "man with a mission" Chidambaram was in their midst.

They know very well that "Vande Mataram" is a song celestial for a patriotic Indian no matter to which stream of faith he belongs. It's a song that inspired Bhagat Singh and Ashfakullah alike and is more popular with an electrifying affect than any other song. An A R Rahman refashioned it and offered a beautiful rendering of it with Bharat Bala making its universal appeal more thrilling. Millions of Indians, Muslims, Hindus, Christians and all denominations sing it with pride and confidence. It was the song which united India against the British repression that had caused the death of millions in Bengal creating an unnatural famine .The original song appears in the famous novel of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay named "Anand Math" which describes a revolution against the foreign yoke led by ochre-robed monks. The deity is Mother India, the song is in praise of the Mother and it's accepted as a national song by the Constitution. No organization can be given an option to denounce or reject the icons representing the national ethos and the spirit of the freedom struggle. If they don't belong to us, they don't have a right to enjoy the fruits of a pluralist society, democracy and a Constitution that gives them more than their ilk offers to any non-Muslim anywhere. Instead of making an Indian identity stronger and helping their community to join the national mainstream endeavouring for a happy and progressive life, they are, at a time when an average Indian is more concerned about dal roti and security, more concerned about a song that was opposed in the same manner by Pakistan seekers pre-1947.

Then to which country these Deobandis and Jamiat's big-mouths belong? What's their problem?It's not the song they are opposing. The message is loud and clear that they don't want to forge a sense of unity with the national life. They want to create a divide on the lines of a Muslim Indian and an Indian Muslim for political leverage. P Chidambaram is certainly not a scholar of Islamic theology that they invited him for a religious discourse. The home minister was there on a political mission. The home minister of India must have made them sing an Indian song rather than emboldening them to oppose it.

Their Arabian-night fever must be brought to an end with the firmness of a united Indian patriotism symbolized in our Constitution and the ever victorious tricolor.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Indian global vision- Pride in Hindu heritage, compassion for humanity and strength to punish the wicked.

Director, Dr. Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation Shri Tarun Vijay was invited as the chief guest by Rotary Club of Bombay(the oldest and highly reputed club of Mumbai) to speak to its members on India's Global Vision at the Taj, Mumbai on 3rd November 2009. It was a full house with a number of luminaries and top industrialists present to listen to him. Tarun Vijay spoke about the glorious Hindu heritage that has its footprints all over the globe from China to Cambodia and from Brazil to Korea. He presented the Indian vision in terms of scholarship, and character and opined that the protecting Indian values of family, pluralism, safeguarding nature and following the legacy of Ram, Guru Govind Singh and Shivaji to annihilate the unrepentant wicked is the Dharma of every Indian in the present circumstances when we are facing a bloody Jihad and the 'harvesting'of the proselytizers. He gave examples of Indian seers going in various far off regions of the world and establishing their mark on the basis of their compassion, wisdom and scholarship like Kumarjiva, who became China's 'Rajguru', and the rishis who established Kamboj desh(Cambodia) and helped build Ang Kor Wat. He also gave vivid description of Hindu culture's influence in Thailand, where the King is known as Rama the ninth and their international airport is named Suvarnabhumi with a marvelous sculpture of Saagar Manthan(churning of the ocean) inside it.Go global, earn great heights in achievements,but never forget to fulfill your duty towards your motherland and Dharma. Strengthening Hindu civilizational values is necessary to protect pluralism, diversity and democracy. He quoted Prof. Rajendra Singh, the fourth Sarsanghchalak of the RSS as saying that India's progress and influence on the world must be measured by its Vidya and Character. He said that the present Sarsanghchalak Shri Mohan Bhagwat is the youngest chief of the global Hindu consolidation who has put the principles of Sewa ie service to humanity and nature conservation before the Swayamsewaks while remaining firm on the need to rekindle interest in Hindu civilisation.

Shri Tarun Vijay said that the barbaric savages attacking us, like they did here, at Taj, where we are sitting today, on 26/11 two years before have to be finally annihilated if we are the true inheritors of Ram and Krishna who never pardoned the wicked. He exhorted young Rotarians to be true to their heritage and strengthen the spirit of patriotism with Vande Mataram on their lips, that devotion to motherland alone can save the nation and defeat the anti-national elements. Indian global vision can only be defined in terms of freedom to choose , appreciation for a different view point, helping world find solution to issues like global warming and climate change in a nuclear free atmosphere, where no nation can dictate terms to the other on the basis of brute force are parts of the Indian global vision. The speech was followed by a brief Q&A session.

»»Introduction to the picture -- Shri Tarun Vijay answering a question from the dias। From L to R-Shri Nanik Rupani, chief of the programmes, Shri Tarun Vijay, Shri Narendra Damani, President of the Rotary Club, Shri Naveen Shah, Secretary and Smt Tarjani Merchant. famous banker .Report by Anil Karnik.